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Welcome to Wilderness Wanderings.\xa0 My name is Renita Reed-Thomson, and I have the privilege to serve as a partner missionary with you at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church.\xa0 Today I want to talk about living life as a peach, and not an orange.

Our text today comes from Colossians 1:15-16:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can\u2019t see\u2014Such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

Recently as I flew on a very long flight from Chicago to Addis Ababa, I was unable to sleep and therefore got a lot of reading and writing done.\xa0 One quote that I read jumped out at me:\xa0 Christians tend to live their lives as oranges, not peaches.\xa0

The quote makes sense.\xa0 Oranges are segmented.\xa0 They are self-contained.\xa0 They have a rather strong \u201cflesh\u201d that protects the juice from inside each segment.\xa0 Like oranges, we too compartmentalize our lives into segments.\xa0 We create layers between them, often unintentionally, that keeps things neatly separate.\xa0 From the outside, it looks like one cohesive unit.\xa0 It\u2019s only upon peeling the orange, that you see the divisions.

Eating an orange is easy.\xa0 The peel and rind come off relatively neatly with just your fingers.\xa0 The segments keep your hands from getting sticky orange juice on them.

Peaches, on the other hand, are different.\xa0 You need a knife to take off the peel.\xa0 The inside pulp of a peach has no divisions.\xa0 In fact, the pulp and pit are so connected that it is difficult to separate them.\xa0 It\u2019s difficult to eat a peach neatly.\xa0 Peach juice often drips all over faces, hands and clothes.\xa0

Christians (and all humanity in normal everyday life) segment our lives. These segments keep things neat and clean in their isolated boxes. Some of the segments that we have created in our lives are those that we believe are important to God.\xa0 Some segments we do not believe are important to God.\xa0

The segments we believe are important include church services and activities, social action activities, evangelistic activities.\xa0 The segments we do not believe are important are work, rest, leisure, sports and the arts.\xa0

We believe that the segments are real and even Biblical.\xa0 But they are not.

We call this the sacred/secular divide and it has permeated the global church.\xa0 This has caused us to be ineffective as ambassadors for Christ from Monday-Saturday, and it has reduced the impact that the church, as the people of God, can have on every sector and industry.

Colossians 1:16 reminds us that \u201call things were created through him and for him.\u201d\xa0 Colossians 1:20 reminds us that God expects us to bring restoration or reconciliation or shalom of all things to Him.\xa0 This includes both material and immaterial things.\xa0 And everything in life is connected \u2013 it\u2019s how it was made to be!\xa0 You cannot do just one thing.\xa0 There are ripples and impacts everywhere.\xa0 And yes, that can get messy \u2013 but in good ways!

As you go into your day, consider the parts of your life that you have segmented like an orange, and see if there is a way to reduce the compartmentalization, becoming more like a peach, for the glory of God.